We knew since the Windows Phone Summit back in June that Windows Phone 8 would offer greater accent color selection in lieu of an actual color selector. While that latter option would be more preferred by our uses, surely having a great choice is better than the current 10+1 choice in Windows Phone 7.

The issue though up until this point is exactly what those color choices would be for consumers. Now thanks to that leaked SDK from July, we have an answer.

Over at 1800PocketPC they created a nice palate of colors presumably available in Windows Phone 8 this fall. We say presumably because that SDK (and OS build) was far from final so colors may have been added or dropped from the final release.

However, this should give users a good idea of what to expect from the 20 accents colors and we think most of you will be pleased.We're assuming that it will also be 20+1 for OEMs or carriers, who are allowed to add one custom color e.g HTC Green or Nokia Blue.

i'm pretty sure it's the 'red' though the shade borders more on a dark orange.. look at the video; out of the four colors in the logo, office is much closer to the red than the forth color (yellow/light orange)..

I guess it's nice. Microsoft is so generous to give us twenty colors to pick from out of the thousands of possibilities.
I guess I don't understand why MS feels like they have to control this aspect of the OS instead of letting users make their own choices.

That "Steel" one might do, but I was kind of hoping for a dark(er) gray. Plus, 'Nokia Blue' to my eye is a better shade than either Cobalt or Cyan shown there. Of course, I'll see how it looks on devices before I judge too much.

All they have to do is make an option for white to appear when you're using the dark background, and make an option for black to appear when you're using the white background....What is really wanted to see is the option for background color's like we see in Windows RT.

This is great, however, the yellow appears a little muted in my opinion, not bright enough, I love the olive, orange, steel, green... but I'm still wondering if people actually use brown. I've always found the color very displeasing, although it might just be my bad Optimus 7's screen's fault. I also wonder why there would be Mauve as it is so close to Steel which looks much better in my opinion.

Cobalt or Cyan for me. I just find blue really soothing for my eyes, its the only colour I can use on my old HTC Titan and Trophy. Let's hope that 7.8 has everything apart from the top games like Nova3 etc... and NFC and that it continues to be used for lower to mid end Windows Phones (at least for a while, anyway) so that its not so much of a waste.

Taupe is a bright/pale shade, maybe too bright for Microsoft; may explain why the Amber is there and Yellow - not quite Taupe though. I think Khaki *may" have* have worked. But, a color wheel would be very nice :)

They will never add white or black - with them you can end up with black tiles on black background or white text on white tiles, etc (and while they can workaround this for Microsoft software, third-party software will be broken still). This is the same reason why they don't allow custom colours.

Which retard decided that we couldn't just pick any colour (yes it has a u in it) we want from the offset with WP7?
I mean, seriously, you're going up against iOS and Android and you only let your customers chose from 2 background colours and a handful of accent colours?
DOH!

If you will change colour of the tiles, you will have to make sure that the colour of the text on tiles is readable, and then ensure that apps work with those colours, etc - this is very difficult to do without introducing bugs.

I'm extremely excited for all these color choices. If they are able to release more too (as like updates or something) all the better. I agree with some of the commenters though, we need some smoother, darker/professional colors. I especially like the bottom left four (forming a four tile square) and also Crimson. I feel like they really have a smooth effect.

I will add to the previous four comments made on this - 7.8, please! I cannot reasonable afford a WP8, Surface, and change to my computer's OS all at the end of October. Too close to Christmas.
Who am I kidding.... hello Credit Card!

I love brown in white backdrop in my WP7. But looking at crimson and sienna, I love those colors even more! So in WP8, my new color color scheme would be crimson or sienna in white backdrop! Can't wait!!!

I feel you missed a trick by not calling it the "Amazing Technicolour Themecoat".
More choice is always good, so I'm very happy about this. One thing, though: indigo is supposed to be a very dark shade of blue, not just a more blue-ish shade of purple as presented here.
Still, it'll be my second choice after amber, which seems to be exceedingly similar to the current "mango" colour on WP7 (my current and fave!).